Summary. Introduction children with cancer diagnosis receive nursing interventions that produce pain and fear. Objective to describe the distraction preferences of children and adolescents between 7 and 16 years with cancer, in a hospital in Bogotá. Methods qualitative descriptive exploratory, intentional sampling with 9 participants from 7 to 16 years with cancer diagnosis. There was approval of ethics committees. Semi-structured interviews were conducted, including recording, observation, field notes, transcription. Stages: Collection, Identification and categorization of descriptors, Pattern analysis, Central themes. Results were obtained 206 descriptors, 11 categories, and three topics. The central node was “distraction for me” that contains three explanations from the participant: how they like to be distracted, what they see and think about the venipunctions, and from what they would prefer in distraction to forget what they feel. Conclusions The preferences in types of virtual and auditory distraction of children are to choose according to their preferences: music, television series, movies, virtual games, with headphones hands-free headbands. They said that distraction is important in punctures to feel less pain, think about something else and get out of that environment.